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Soft Italian Cookies are dipped in a creamy glaze and topped with colorful sprinkles. They are perfect for holidays and special occasions!!
These tasty Italian Cookies are easy to make, make a ton, and are the cutest little cookie for special occasions or to give out as gifts! For more giftable cookies try Spritz Cookies, No Roll Sugar Cookies, or Turtle Thumbprint Cookies.
Italian Wedding Cookies
Have you ever tried Italian Wedding Cookies before?
Italian Cookies are traditionally flavored with anise, but no one in my family likes the taste of black licorice, so I used almond instead.
Almond is a common substitute for a more Americanized Italian Cookie version. If you don’t like anise or almond, you can also just use vanilla.
We love that these Italian Butter Cookies are not only simple, but they are tasty and pretty! They’re a great dessert to serve at parties or even holiday functions. And who can deny a cookie covered in glaze and sprinkles?
How to make Italian Cookies
COOKIE DOUGH. Whisk together eggs, oil, sugar, and extract in a mixing bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt.
CHILL. Roll dough by tablespoonfuls into balls. Chill balls of dough for at least an hour, or freeze for 15-20 minutes. Place cold dough balls on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
BAKE. Bake in the oven at 350°F for about 9 minutes, or till the tops are set. Bottoms will be lightly browned, but tops should still be white. Remove cookies to cooling racks and cool completely.
GLAZE. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk till smooth, adding enough warm cream to get a thin but creamy consistency.
Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze, then top with sprinkles.
The cookies are best eaten within a day or two after they are glazed. After that, the color from the sprinkles starts to bleed. Pastel colors bleed less.
Recipe Tips
Italian Sprinkle Cookies are an easy treat, but here are a few tips and variations to help!
Flavor. The vanilla extract can be substituted with almond extract, lemon extract, or anise extract which has a black licorice-like taste.
Flat cookies. If cookies end up being flat it is probably because the levitating ingredients weren’t sufficient. Try using less flour next time, the dough may have been too heavy for the egg, oil, and baking powder to lift.
Glaze. Make sure to let the glaze dry/harden a little bit before adding the sprinkles on top. Having the glaze be kind of “tacky” will help the sprinkles stick to the cookies better, rather than just having the glaze and the sprinkles fall off the cookies.
Nuts. Mix in up to 1 cup of chopped nuts (almond or walnuts) or mini chocolate chips.
Different shapes. These cookies should hold their shape pretty well.
- Round: Roll the dough into balls and they bake up with a nice, rounded top.
- Flat: Place the dough balls on the baking tray and use a glass cup dipped in flour or powdered sugar to gently press the tops of the balls a bit flat.
- Shape: Roll the dough balls into a short rope and form it into a squat “s” shape or tie it into a knot.
Sprinkles. I love the classic nonpareils sprinkles but you can use any type of sprinkles, including holiday shapes or sugar crystals, making them a perfect cookie to serve year-round.
Chrismas Version
We sure do love these Italian cookies, and especially love that you can change up the colors of sprinkles to match any holiday or celebration. The kids love that they also taste great!
Since Christmas is just around the corner, I sprinkled a few of my cookies with green and red nonpareils. Be sure to check out our Italian Christmas Cookies recipe for more holiday specific tips there. 😉
If you don’t like the crunch that comes with nonpareils, you can also use jimmies (softer and longer sprinkles) too.
SToring Info
STORE baked Italian Cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
FREEZE. Make these cookies ahead of time then freeze them without the glaze. Thaw before glazing.
Make the glaze up to 5 days ahead of time. Bring the glaze to room temperature before trying to dip the cookies.
STORE the dough. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
FREEZE the dough in a large ball by wrapping it with plastic and again with aluminum foil. Or form the dough into balls and place them on a baking tray and into the freezer.
Once the dough balls are solid, transfer them to a freezer-safe Ziploc. The dough can keep in the freezer for 2-3 months. Thaw before baking.
For more Christmas cookies:
- Crazy Christmas Cookies
- Snowball Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Christmas Cookie Bars
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
Italian Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 6 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp almond, anise, or vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp almond extract, or vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 3-4 Tbsp cream or milk, warmed
Instructions
- Whisk together eggs, oil, sugar, and extract in a mixing bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Roll dough by tablespoonfuls into balls. Chill balls of dough for at least an hour, or freeze for 15-20 minutes. Place cold dough balls on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Bake at 350° for about 9 minutes, or till the tops are set. Bottoms will be lightly browned, but tops should still be white. Remove cookies to cooling racks and cool completely.
- For the glaze, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk till smooth, adding enough warm cream to get a thin but creamy consistency.
- Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze, then top with sprinkles.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love the cookies. I don’t like anise, can’t use almond due to allergies and didn’t have lemons. So for the glaze i combined the powder sugar with fresh juice from a cara cara orange, orange zest and a bit of vanilla. My family really liked it.
That sounds perfect!! Thank you for sharing that!
Delicious!
Glad you like them! Thank you!
I made the dough, rolled it into balls then froze them for 15 minutes.
I then baked them. It’s still raw in the middle of the cookie
I’m sorry they didn’t turn out the way you had hoped. All freezers are different with how fast they cool and freeze things. Yours may have been a little faster at freezing than mine. Sorry about that!
Do you know the name of these cookies in Italian? My mom called them something like “tadalas”
I wish I did 🙂
Not what I expected unfortunately
I’m sorry. Thank you for trying them!
First time making these and I made them because I grew up in an Italian family and these were always my favorite. I used almond instead of anise and they were absolutely perfect and delicious! I froze them overnight, took them out, baked them and frosted them later in the day. They have stayed perfectly in a baggie, did not get stale or hard, absolute perfection! Thank you for this recipe!
HELP! I am attempting these cookies for the first time and the dough is very dry. Crumbly, actually. It won’t hold together.
Did the recipe to a T. Any suggestions??
Hmm..I wish I knew why it isn’t holding together. It should be. Maybe add a splash of liquid. Maybe a teaspoon or 2 of milk. I know sometimes, if my ingredients aren’t fresh, the dough is tougher. Good luck!
You used too much flour
I just made these tonight and followed the instructions except I subbed olive oil instead of vegetable/canola oil (terrible for your health) and spooned the flour into the measuring cup instead of using the measuring cup to scoop the flour. Spooning it is marginally better so it doesn’t get compacted but weighing the flour to 120 grams is the best technique for baking.
I agree with Debbie, you may have added too much flour or the flour sat in the pantry for too long.
This is an excellent recipe! Now I’m waiting for my 1/2 Italian boyfriend to return home to give it a taste test to see if it passes 😉
Hopefully the cookies passed the test! 😉 Glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe!
Tried making these cookies for the first time today. I substituted with avocado oil instead of regular oil and added about a tablespoon of egg whites to the mix. The cookies came out incredible. My mom always used to make these cookies for me. First time trying and I have to say I’m proud of myself.
You should be proud! Way to go 🙂 Thank you for sharing what you did! I will have to try that!
Great recipe! Turned out just like the photos. Made some with almond extract, and some with vanilla extract. I’m not a fan of nuts, so I didn’t like the almond ones much, although my mother liked them a lot, she said they tasted like ones her grandma made), so that’s just my flavour preference. Overall everyone really liked them, and the recipe was very easy to make. I recommend trying them.
Thanks for sharing that!! It’s a versatile recipe, so I am glad you tried it other ways!
Can anisette be used in place of the anise extract? I have a whole bottle & can’t find the recipe i wanted to use it for? If it can be substituted, how much should be used? These cookies look delicious and would be great with my coffee right now!!! Thank you!
I haven’t tried using that. I know the anise is a flavor, but the anisette is a French alcoholic liqueur flavored with anise, so not sure how they would turn out.
Excellent cookie and so easy to make. My husband’s family are Italian cookie makers and they couldn’t stop eating these!
Yay!! I am happy they couldn’t 🙂 Thank you for letting me know!